August 1957

Purchase To Read More

Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

Print + Digital All Access Subscription ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. Plus, subscribe to get Print, Online and Tablet access to the next 12 new issues to be released as well as Online access to archives back to 1845. $99.00

Features

The Origin of Hurricanes

During the summer the uniform weather of the tropics is periodically disturbed. Occasionally these disturbances ripen into hurricanes. Why they do not do so more often is still a basic question of meteorology

By Joanne Starr Malkus

Electroluminescence

When a luminescent substance such as zinc sulfide is placed in an alternating electric field, it emits light. This effect makes possible thin illuminating panels and many other useful devices

By Henry F. Ivey

How Fishes Swim

In which the speed of small fishes is measured in the laboratory and their power calculated. Similar observations in nature suggest that water may flow over a dolphin completely without turbulence

By Sir James Gray

The Ear

It translates sound between some 16 cycles per second and 20,000 into nerve impulses. Together with the auditory centers of the brain, it is an instrument that is not only remarkably sensitive but also selective

By Georg von Békésy

The Plasma Jet

Magnetohydrodynamic effects in an electric arc generate a beam of electrons and ions with a temperature of 30,000 degrees F., the highest maintained beyond an instant by a man-made device

By Gabriel M. Giannini

Single Human Cells in Vitro

when a suspension of bacteria is spread on a layer of nutrient, each bacterium gives rise to a colony of genetically uniform descendants. The same thing can now be done with cells of various human tissues

By Theodore T. Puck

Schizophrenia and Culture

Schizophrenia is not one disease but many. It varies particularly with the cultural background of the individual. An account of its variation between two cultural groups, one Irish and one Italian

By Marvin K. Opler

The Edible Snail

The French now eat more than 8,000 tons of snails in a year. The cultivation and shipping of these succulent creatures are a triumph over their delicate adjustment to their environment

By Jean Cadart

Departments

50 and 100 Years Ago: August 1957

Science and the Citizen: August 1957

Letters

Letters to the Editors, August 1957

Recommended

Books

Mathematical Recreation

Mathematical Games

Amateur Scientist

The Amateur Scientist

Departments

The Authors

Bibliography

Purchase To Read More

Digital Issue ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. *A printed copy of this issue is not included. $7.99

Print + Digital All Access Subscription ?Read or download this issue’s articles online. Plus, subscribe to get Print, Online and Tablet access to the next 12 new issues to be released as well as Online access to archives back to 1845. $99.00

Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.